The reporter who was humiliated by Blake Lively said it left her terrified to speak to other celebrities

• A resurfaced interview between Blake Lively and the journalist Kjersti Flaa went viral on YouTube.
• Flaa said Lively's behavior during the interview for "Café Society" left her feeling anxious.
• The interview's resurgence coincides with backlash over Lively's promotion of "It Ends With Us."

The journalist from a viral interview in which Blake Lively was dismissive said the experience made her nervous about future celebrity interactions.

Kjersti Flaa interviewed Lively about the film "Café Society" in 2016. She didn't share the video publicly until August 10, when she uploaded it to YouTube with the title, "The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job."

In the video — which has more than 3 million views at the time of writing — Lively snapped at Flaa after the Norwegian reporter congratulated her on her pregnancy.

"First of all, congrats on your little bump," Flaa said, kicking off the interview.

"Congrats on your little bump," Lively responded. (Flaa was not pregnant.)

Later in the interview, Lively challenged Flaa for asking a question about clothes. The actor appeared to ignore Flaa for most of the interaction and turned her body toward her costar Parker Posey.

"It actually took me a while to get over the experience," Flaa told Business Insider in an email on Monday.

"Every time I entered a room after this I got nervous that something similar might happen again," she wrote. "The fact that I still don't get what triggered the behavior made it even harder. I felt it was my fault for a long time. I have met moody celebrities, but nothing like this interview."

Flaa said in an interview with MailOnline that Lively's comment was particularly hurtful because she wasn't able to conceive.

"It's true that the comment hurt me because I was never able to have kids myself, but of course Blake did not know that so I can't blame her for the pain that I felt," she told BI.

"That put aside, I think that she threw that comment back at me to make me feel bad. There is no way around it," she added.

Flaa said in a separate YouTube video she uploaded on Monday that the experience initially made her afraid to interview Kristen Stewart , who also starred in the film.

"I wanna shout out to Kristen Stewart, who was the person I interviewed after the horrific incident," Flaa said.

"She was the most wonderful, wonderful person to interview. So she saved my day, and you know, I was terrified walking into that interview because I'd just experienced what I had," she said, adding that Stewart was "so sweet."

Flaa would eventually meet Lively again in 2018 at the press junket for "A Simple Favor" with Anna Kendrick. The interview appeared to be relaxed, with no mention of the previous interaction.

Fans pointed out the difference in Lively's demeanor during the second interview.

"It's weird watching her trying to be nicer than the last time," one person commented on the YouTube video.

"The irony is that Blake doesn't even remember this is the woman she bullied," another wrote.

Lively's reputation has taken a hit

The resurfaced interview coincided with the backlash Lively has received during the promotion of her new film, "It Ends With Us," which is about a woman who experiences domestic abuse.

Some commentators said Lively's promotion of the movie has been too lighthearted, while others accused the actor of using it as an opportunity to promote her beverage line and hair-care line.

"Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it," Lively said in one promotional video that's been making the rounds on TikTok .

Desislava Dobreva, a branding strategist, and Jake Holyoak, the managing director of the public-relations agency One March, told BI that Lively's reputation could be mended if she issued a detailed public statement addressing the criticism.

Lively hasn't publicly responded to Flaa's comments or the criticism surrounding "It Ends With Us." However, she shared a National Domestic Violence Hotline resource on her Instagram story on August 13.

Flaa told BI she was unaware of the controversy surrounding Lively when she posted the 2016 interview and had "no idea it would get this kind of attention."

"Looking back, I still feel that I handled it the best way I could," Flaa said. "In these settings, they always blame the journalist if something goes wrong. It's never the talent's fault no matter what happens."

Representatives for Blake Lively did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.